Speckled Smooth-hound

About the Speckled Smooth-hound

The speckled smooth-hound is a species of groundshark, found in Peru, Chile, and Ecuador. It’s commonly taken by artisanal gill net fisheries in Chile, where it’s more abundant. It is a robust species with a long snout, small mouth, and tiny eyes. Its teeth are molar-like and lack cusps. The maximum reported length for this species is 130 cm/4.27 ft..

Speckled smooth-hounds are ovoviviparous. The embryos develop in eggs inside the mother.

It is heavily exploited throughout its range and captured mainly by artisanal gillnet fisheries in Peru and Chile, and is occasionally landed in industrial trawl fisheries in Chile. In Peru, catches of this species are effectively unregulated and the true catch is masked in the aggregate product category of ‘tollo’. Historically, in Peru, landings of tollo were high for a 24-year period between 1966 and 1989, averaging 11,276 t per year and reaching a peak of 25,000 t in 1984. Over the period 1990–2004, there was a substantial drop in landings to an average of 4,806 t, equivalent to 91.6% reduction over three generation lengths. In Chile, population reduction can be inferred from species-specific landing records beginning with small catches in 1960 peaking at 419 tons in 1989 followed by collapse. Landings declined by more than 90% between 1990–2018 (approximately three generations) to the point where this shark has not been reported from northern Chilean artisanal fisheries in recent years. Given the very steep declines in tollo landings in Peru, combined with the collapse in landings of this species in northern Chile, and actual or potential levels of exploitation, it is inferred that the Speckled Smoothhound has undergone a population reduction of >80% over the last three generations (30 years), and it is therefore assessed as Critically Endangered A2bd. This shark is utilised for its meat and is consumed locally as tollo (Gonzalez-Pestana et al. 2016).

A Peruvian legal regulation was put into force in 2001, establishing minimum catch sizes of 60 cm TL for Speckled, Humpback, and Spotted (Triakis maculata) Smoothhounds (Gonzalez-Pestana et al. 2016). Species-specific catch monitoring, establishment of catch limits, and enforcement of regulations is a priority, along with communicating regulations to fishers. There are no regulations for this species in Chile. Further research is needed on population size and trends and life history.

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Speckled Smooth-hound Gallery